The Origin of Shade The Echfox
by Shadygirl
Summary: The start of a new life for Shade- my own char
1. The escape

The Origin of Shade the Echfox Disclaimer: I own Shade the Echfox, and everything in this chapter, so if you want to use her, ask before you use her or I'll go medieval on your butt.and you know I can. I'll add more disclaimers when it's necessary I would like to thank my Muses Mrs Prower, Jim the Otter you both encouraged me to getting round to writing this, Also For being there when I needed a shoulder to cry on and I thank you a thousand times over. *Claps and both muses blush*  
  
Chapter One  
  
Hmm where Do I start?  
  
I guess at the beginning, yes all things must begin somewhere. For me it began in a laboratory, as the subject of a "dangerous" experiment, you see I wasn't born. No I was created, but one thing they didn't bring in to account when I was "designed" - you cannot create a living thing with out giving it a soul.  
  
I know I'm not that much to look at really. a bit of a freak some might say, a white female Echidna, with blue fox ears and a white fox tail with a blue tip. Don't ask me the technicalities of how I came about; I've tried long and hard to forget that place. Oh don't get me wrong, I wasn't treated that bad, I mean I had food, drink and regular exercise, But I was never allowed to leave the confines of my "quarters" which was basically a glorified cage. I was never allowed to meet anyone who wasn't involved in my upbringing. not even the ones who were studying me were allowed to talk to me. Or even the other test subjects, whom I knew of, but never seen.  
  
I always felt so alone. Even when I was being taught it was mostly through a video wall with a web cam by it.  
  
Every morning and every night my "cage" door would open and I would head to the exercise room and I would be put through a regular training schedule, yes still being observed. At one point I was given a laptop computer, that was a major turning point for me. Why? You ask. The answer is simple I had access to the lab's mainframe from that and working through that I learned to hack systems and to cover my tracks, after almost getting caught a few times, but I knew the price of getting caught doing anything that wasn't planned by the scientists. Immediate Termination. I seen a few when I was hacking in to the cameras, I didn't realise at first what was going on. The first time, I'll always remember. The test subject was tied on to a table and wires were attached to him, I think he was a sort of bat of some kind, then I saw one of our captors, she was working at some kind of console and then the bat started shaking and spaseming, screaming all the time, then after a while, he went still. I couldn't watch as they took the body away.I ran to what passed as my bathroom and threw up.  
  
I've seen it a couple of times when I hacked in to their cameras. I didn't want that, but I wanted some type of freedom. After I saw the I.T's I spent most of my time trying to find a way to escape, then I saw something that gave me an idea.  
  
A fire drill.  
  
Some of you might get the feeling that you know what I was thinking of doing, well maybe you do and maybe you don't. By this time was getting quite handy with the hacking, I could now shut down some systems and make it look like power loss and it would take my captors about ten to twenty minutes to get the system back up and running.  
  
I knew my plan was risky, and if I were caught I would be terminated, like some pest. The one thing I noticed, during a fire drill all the staff would leave the building, leaving all us test subjects inside. how kind of them if there was a real fire. Anyway, this would give me enough time to shut down all the cameras in the lab and the doors too, which would when I set them not close, I didn't know if it would work. For weeks I studied the layout of the lab so I could plan an escape route.  
  
So one evening after my exercise session, I sat down with my Laptop, and hacked my way to the fire protection systems and made it believe that there were fires blazing all over the Lab. The Fire Alarms rang, the sprinklers went off and the scientists ran from the building. From that moment I only had a few minutes before they realised there wasn't a fire, so I worked fast to shut the cameras down and open the doors. I was so relived when I heard the doors unlocked. This was the moment of truth. I was shaking, knowing what would happen if I got caught, and my heart was pounding, thoughts kept running through, my head.what would it be like on the outside, what sort of people would I encounter out there. I started to have second thoughts; maybe I should stay. then the thought of what could be in store for me.  
  
I ran through the door and out in to the corridor, it looked so alien to me, all the walls a uniform grey, with cell like doors every few hundred meters, as I ran, my foot steps echoed along the corridor, but I knew where I was going from all the layouts I studied. With every step I took I expected to be caught, by someone, who had realised that the alarm wasn't real. I was almost out, when I saw something on the floor-a cigarette lighter. I picked it up as I ran by, another plan forming in my head, one that might make my captors believe I was dead.  
  
Then I saw the door. That was one of the greatest moments of my life, feeling the sun on my fur for the first time. As I ran through the door and headed away from my prison, I could have sung and danced. I was free.  
  
When I was a few hundred meters from the labs, I took off most of my lab issued clothing off and my identity tags as well and put them all in a heap, and set them alight with the lighter. I thought they wouldn't look from me as I fled in to a nearby forest. I thought I was safe. I thought I was better off. I thought I was free. How wrong I was.  
  
To be continue.  
  
Please R&R. Oh, and all flames will be giggled at by my muses and I then used as something that I don't think you will want to know about. 


	2. Free?

Disclaimer. Matt belongs to Gokujr564 and the rest belongs to me!  
  
I would like to dedicate this chapter to my friend Harry Webster who died on Christmas Day 2002. I'll miss you Harry Chapter 2  
  
I thought I had everything planned. Yeah right... I had forgotten a couple little details, what would happen once my captors had discovered I had escaped, I didn't even think of it until I heard another type of alarm go off, one I only heard once before a high pitched wail.The ''escaped subject'' alarm. I knew I had to get away from the area, but where to? I thought that once I was out of that place I would be able to make my way, and discover my route as I went, but it was not to be.  
  
A shout of "there she is!" broke my trail of thought and I did the only thing that I could- run! As I ran through the woods I felt the branches of bushes and low trees snag at me, cutting in to me, but I couldn't stop. To stop would mean I would be caught! As I was running I could hear that they were gaining on me, when suddenly one end of a rope was dropped down in front of me and I heard a Male voice call from somewhere above me in the tree tops. I had no time to worry if it was a trap, so I grabbed the rope and hauled myself up in to the foliage above me, Then suddenly, I felt someone from behind help me up on to a thick branch that could support my weight. I looked round to look at my 'helper' and I almost fell of the branch in astonishment- In front of me was a male Echidna/fox crossbreed!  
  
He motioned me to keep silent while my pursuers ran past below me. As I waited I had time to study my rescuer, his fur was green where mine was white and where I had blue, he had a darker shade of green, and his head fur came forward in spikes.  
  
When the coast was clear he finally spoke to me "No time for introductions, it isn't safe here, if you want to remain here and be caught and taken back to the Lab that's fine with me, OR you can trust me once again and follow." With that he balanced on the branch standing up and crossed to the tree trunk and pushed at the bark to reveal a hidden doorway.The Tree was HOLLOW! I decided it probably would be best to follow him. for now at least . He lead the way down a very tight staircase heading quite a way down, until I was sure we must underground. Still following in silence down several darkened corridors, when I glanced at the walls and I could have sworn that I saw tree roots embedded in the walls.  
  
At last we reached a fairly large cavern, there was some kind of glow panels in the walls at certain points and in one corner were a few blankets and supplies. The Mysterious Echfox sat down by the blankets and motioned me to do the same while telling me " My name is Matt, I know where your from, because I too came from there along time ago, I was part of the same project, as you can very well see."  
  
I nodded not really knowing what to say, never really having someone to talk to as an actual person and not a test subject with no intelligence. He looked at me square in the eyes "so what are you called?"  
  
I blinked, slightly taken back by this; the only thing I had been called was my designation back in the lab. "198145" He half smiled and chuckled "Ah your still using the lab numbers, well we cant call you that too much someone might get suspicious and it is slightly hard to remember.so we'll have to think what to call you.  
  
As he was talking I realised how exhausted I was, he must have seen this because he handed me a blanket and told me "Here, rest for now your safe. You've managed to do what only one other person has managed to do, escape to Freedom, from Hell" With that he laid down on the other side of the cavern, I covered myself over and laid down, but I didn't sleep yet, I laid there thinking about all the things that happened and all the possibilities that lay ahead, what I could do, where I could go.  
  
Then it hit me, I might be more of an experiment that I ever was in the Lab. With these thoughts running thru my head, I fell asleep for the first time as a Free Creature. 


	3. Aihade?

Disclaimer time! yep. Its the same as in chapter 2. And if you try anything funny i'll get crazy.  
  
Chapter 3  
  
Sleep.  
  
What a funny thing it is.when you need it the most you can never have it.  
  
At least that's what I found out a few hours after my rescue. I laid there, listening to Matt's snoring, which didn't really help in my attempts to return to the blissful state that is slumber. As I laid there I thought about the one last thing that bound me to the Lab.My so called 'name' I would have to find a proper one if I was to break free completely, but it was a part of who I am. What would I call myself? A name shows the world who you are in a way. I didn't want to just pick any old name.It had to mean something.  
  
Hmm. Where to start.with my designation - 198145 hmm.what if I changed the numbers into their alphabetical counterparts?  
  
So . 1 would be A 9 I 8 H 1 A 4 D 5 E  
  
- Aihade? No. That didn't sound right.  
  
Hmm. what if I changed 1 and 9 to 19- that would make it an S  
  
SHADE.  
  
I shivered.it sound right, like it belonged to me already. I just didn't know it. I would tell Matt in the morning, with this thought I closed my eyes.  
  
It seemed only a moment after I managed to fall asleep that being shaken roughly awoke me; I thought it was Matt waking me up, until I heard him on the other side of the cavern. "Get up Girl! We've got to get above ground!" I was about to ask why, when the shaking started again. I realised what it was.EARTHQUAKE!!  
  
I scrambled on to my feet and ran as fast as I could following Matt back in to the maze of corridor like tunnels. I lost my balance several times as the Earth shook, as did Matt and the falling dust and rubble made it very hard to see, hear or breathe. Finally after what seemed and eternity I saw daylight up ahead. Matt and I made a final dash as the earth tremors increased in frequency and violence. Dust and rubble were falling faster and harder now.  
  
Matt ran through the open cave mouth, but as I approached the gaping maul, the worst tremor yet knocked me off my feet, but I wasn't the only thing to fall, the cave opening gave way. I had time for an "oh crap" before darkness filled my vision and I knew no more..  
  
.. TO BE CONTINUED.(dont ya just hate that? well HAHAHA! oh and Please R&R) 


	4. Darkness

Dislcaimer time! Shad and matt...you know about ^_^ But Mr H belongs to Sonics_hedgehog. See? I told ya you would be in it.  
  
Chapter Four  
  
As the dust settled from the cave in, I found it hard to breathe; I could not believe that I had survived. As I tried to move I felt searing pain shoot through my left arm, " must be broken" I thought to myself, and in addition I found that I could not move my legs and I became aware of massive pressure, and because of the blocked opening of the cave I could not see anything, so I assumed that the fallen rock was trapping my legs.  
  
Once I had got my breathing under control, I heard a sound from the other side of the blockage. I thought I was imaging it, and audio mirage caused by the pain in my arm. "Just great, the second day of freedom and I'm trapped again."  
  
To tell the truth, I was scared that I was not going to get out of that dark and dusty place, I couldn't breathe and seeing was damn near impossible, and to make matters worse, the pain was getting to me and I felt dizzy from it.  
  
Then I heard something. .It was a voice! I couldn't make out what is was saying, but my heart jumped and I called out, hoping who ever it was could hear me. I'm not sure how long it was but after a while I could every now and again this sort of scrabbling and scratching occurred, this started to unnerve me, but my heart skipped a beat when I heard " Girl can you hear me?".MATT! I couldn't believe it. "Yeah I hear you" I called out gratefully. "Hang in there, I'm gonna get you out" After that the scrabbling came louder and faster, but still the progress was painfully slow, but what caught my attention was that I could FEEL some of the larger rocks shifting. "UH OH.MATT DON'T MOVE THE ROCKS.THEY ARE SHIF-..." A tremendous shaking cut off the sentence as the passage started collapsing AGAIN!  
  
I managed to cover my head with my good arm and held my breath, knowing this one might be my last as the world went dark for a second time..  
  
It seemed once again I had escaped death, with one major draw back. I was now buried alive! Now it was even harder to breathe because of the new pressure on my chest, I don't know how long I could keep awake as I kept drifting in and out of consciousness.  
  
I couldn't think either, I started to realise, I was probably going to die there.I would have cried if I could.  
  
Suddenly I felt something brush my hand, it twitched from the contact, then there was nothing for awhile, I decided that it must be from being trapped for a while. But then I found it easier to breathe, as the rocks on top of me were gently being moved from on top of me, as soon as my head was cleared, I blinked a few time to clear my vision and the I could just make out a shadowy figure, looming over me. "Are you okay miss?" he asked once I could sit up and he handed me a canteen of water to sip from. Once I had cleared my mouth, I told him I ached all over and that one of my arms was probably broken.  
  
" Okay lets get out in to the open and I'll see what I can do for you" he told me as he replaced the canteen once I had finished with it "Can you walk?" Shaking my head slightly "I don't think I can right now." The world suddenly started spinning as I blacked out.  
  
I came round to the sound of bird song and feeling a gentle breeze through my fur, I slowly opened my eyes. "Ah your awake, no, don't try and sit up, your still in shock" I now got my first good look at my rescuer , he was a hedgehog with a strange type of cowboy hat on his head. I looked down at my broken arm seeing it was now in an arm splint and sling. He sat down next to me. "I'm Mr H. What's your name ?" I blinked taken back by all this. "Um..Im..Shade."  
  
I felt something or someone was missing..I looked round and then asked...... "Where's Matt?" 


End file.
